Eye irritation test is a major field for cosmetics safety assessment． Many different in vitro methods were designed to replace traditional animal testing，these methods are in the process of development，validation and acception with different stages． It is no single in vitro methods can completely replace the rabbit eye test，but with reasonable evaluation the scientific principle，relevance and standardization of alternative methods，which will contribute to select and guide the application of alternative methods including mechanism study，classification and labeling，quality control and product development for cosmetics ．